A Kentucky researcher has been granted funding for a two-year research project into feeding oats to horses.

Dr Laurie Lawrence of the University of Kentucky will receive more than $US122,000 in funding for the research, which begins next month.

She becomes the first recipient of an equine oat research grant from the Equine Feed Oat Project (EFOP).

The EFOP is an initiative of the Prairie Oat Growers Association, a non-profit organization representing 15,000 Canadian Oat Farmers.

Launched in 2010, the EFOP was created to conduct research and educate about the role of oats in equine nutrition.

Since its formation in 1998, it has placed a high priority on funding research that has helped produce many new varieties of oats for both the human and equine markets.

POHA chairman Bill Wilton said: “Dr Lawrence’s research will help us know more about why and how oats are good for horses.”

POGA received matching funding for the grant from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, through its Agriculture Development Fund. Each year, the fund provides over $10 million in project funding to researchers in public and private research and development in order to create future growth opportunities in the provincial agriculture industry.

Lawrence is a University of Kentucky professor with more than 30 years’ experience in equine nutrition. She joined the university in 1992 and has since become a leading researchers and teachers in equine nutrition.

She has written many papers and studies and has been honored by the industry and her peers for her work, including the American Society of Animal Science, the Equine Science Society and the University of Kentucky.